Nemesis
by youwin-youlive
Summary: Nyx, as her peers know her, is a runner-up for L's successor, fighting for the position alongside her friend and brother. When L requests "help" from one of the Wammy's kids, he chooses Nyx, claiming it's because she's the oldest and has more experience. Is that really his intent? Or could he be trying to get Light (or Nyx) to plead guilty? LightxOC, possible LxOC. Manga spoilers.
1. Chapter 1

_**Description: Nyx, as her peers know her, is a runner-up for L's successor, fighting for the position along side her friend and brother. When L decides to request "help" from one of the Wammy's kids, he chooses Nyx, claiming it's because she's the oldest and has more experience. Is that really his intent? Or could he be trying to get Light to plead guilty? Or maybe Nyx? LightxOC, LxOC. Caution. Spoilers.**_

_**AN: Nyx isn't her real name, it's a pseudonym, like L, or Near, or Mello, or Matt. I have her real name figured out, probably. If you have any suggestions, like names with meanings such as "death," "justice," etc etc, tell me. I really need suggestions, I don't care if I'm on Chapter 2 or Chapter 38, I would still like suggestions. And no. I haven't planned out the story that far yet. And by the way, the "**_**Click" **_**is the little noise puzzle pieces make when you put them together. My friend couldn't figure that out, so in case you guys couldn't either, I told you.**_

Nyx bent down, watching her younger brother with observing gray eyes.

_Click._

His nimble fingers grabbed the puzzle pieces and fit them in. Piece after piece. Row after row.

_Click._

His free hand reached up to curl around the cowlick in his snowy white hair, his dark eyes concentrated on the puzzle he'd memorized years before.

_Click._

The tone was almost monotonous, but it was mesmerizing to watch. The way it just fell into place, nothing out of position, despite the plain whiteness of it all.

_Click._

Finally, the final piece set in. The puzzle was complete. The boy's hand brushed against the calligraphic "L" adjourning the corner of the puzzle.

_Clatter._

Near turned the platform upside down, everything tumbling out, the white pieces twirling like snowflakes, the black pieces following like ash. He ran his hand through it, separating and scattering the pieces.

_Sigh._

His pale little hand reached for another piece.

_Rustle._

Nyx rose, her hand resting on the soft strands of her sibling's hair. She shuffled to the door, the hems of her long pajama _**(AN: or pyjamas? Since Wammy's is in the UK…) **_pants trailing on the floor, and she passed through the door silently.

_Slam._


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2.**

_**Disclaimer: I do not own Death Note.**_

_**AN: Italics signify dreams, thoughts, etc. I'm sure you can all figure it out.**_

_Whispering breaths filled the damp, heavy air, and fog hissed into view. Immediately Nyx was blinded, and she stumbled on the hard, rocky ground._

_ "Na—"_

_ "Don't say my name," Nyx snapped. "I'm no longer known by it." She closed her eyes. "I go by Nyx." Despite these words, the name felt unfamiliar and foreign on her tongue._

_ "Very well. Nyx." A lingering pause. "Do you know who I am?"_

_ "Of course not. I may be smart, but I'm not psychic. I can't see through this fog." Indeed, when Nyx held up her fingers in front of her face, they were immediately lost in the haze. _

_ "Yes, yes…" A sharp click and the mist dispelled. Standing before Nyx was a hideous creature, one she couldn't place a name on, nor had she seen in her lifetime before. It seemed like something that belonged in the books, something… mythological and dark…_

_ Attempting to hide her shock, she whispered, "What are you?"_

_ The creature opened its scarlet lips; the crevices inked with black streaks, and uttered, "A shinigami." A jolt of shock shook her spine, and she took a minute step backwards. _

_ "A—a shinigami? I—impossible, those don't…. those don't exist—"_

_ "And yet here I am."_

_ "This is a dream. I already know that, yet… it feels… different." She lifted her arm, stretching out her fingers, as if to touch the monstrosity. "Is this reality?"_

_ "You can be the judge of that." She took this time to examine the creature thoroughly as she dropped her arm by her side. An off-white face framed the lips, and the huge, bulging red eyes seemed to stare into her very soul and being. They were almost hypnotizing, and it took a moment for her to tear her concentration away. Unlike soft, fleshy human skin, this… this _thing_ seemed to have patches of black, brown, and dark red leather sewn together all over its entire body, and a belt of crosses cut across its waist. The fog covered its lower body, and it scratched its head with a long nail protruding from its hand, which was stuck on the end of its incredibly long arm, hanging about a foot or two off the ground. Despite the devilish appearance, large, nearly angelic, wings unfurled themselves upon its back, the red feathers—well, a material similar to feathers, but not quite so—rustled in an invisible breeze._

_ "Are you good? Or evil?"_

_ A wry smirk crossed its face, and Nyx shivered. "There is no good nor evil in the world, child. Neither justice nor crime. There is only what is, and what isn't."_

_ These words sent a shiver echoing down her spine and she took a deep breath. "I understand that, I just never though anybody else did… though I never thought shinigami existed either." The trembling in her fingers seemed to stop and she could stand without her knees shaking. "Explain to me why you have come to meet me today."_

_ "Have you ever noticed anything different?"_

_ "Different? I don't understand what you're—"_

_ "Did you ever realize why you saw names floating above others' heads, along with numbers? Why you can't see some other's, and how you could see impossibly far?"_

_ "…Yes. Of course I noticed, how could I not? I hadn't realized nobody else saw that way until my younger brother mentioned something. But I never said anything. You think I'm an idiot?"_

_ "I never suggested you were, nor that you mentioned it to somebody. But have you ever wondered why?"_

_ "Yes. Not to sound like a narcissist, but I'd assumed it was because… well I'm classified as a genius in the human world, and I'd assumed that some people with higher IQ had the ability to see that way…" The shinigami laughed. "I'm wrong, right? I'm not aware of the supernatural. It's not something I cared about too much."_

_ "You were born differently. Why you, I do not know. You're not any more special than others." Nyx's lips curled downwards in a frown. "Only one other has been born such as you. Death followed him." With the recent massacres because of Kira, death followed everybody. The fear of a name and face—or a face if we were referring to the Second Kira—being presented, accompanied with the accusation of a crime, to the people terrified the public. "Have you heard of Kira?"_

_ For a long moment, she didn't answer. Then, "Yes."_

_ The smile left the shinigami's face. "Then we shall meet once more." It raised its arm and clicked its fingers. A blinding flash of burning light and a deafening _snap!_ filled the air—_

Nyx was jerked awake, her chest heaving as she gasped for breath of fresh air. Her skin was warm, and the covers hot. Tossing off the duvets, she swung her legs over the edge of the bed.

Throwing a sideways glance at her clock, she expected it to be somewhere after 9, however, it was 4:22. Fabulous. 4 (shi, in Japanese, which also meant "death") and 2 (ni) combined made shini, which lead to shinigami, and back to her dream…

_Just forget it._ She stood up. Crossing the floor, she pulled on black jeans and a navy jacket. Then she exited her room.

As she shut her door, the room across the hallway opened. "Nyx? What are you doing out so early?" Her brother Near peeped out of his own room.

"Why are you?"

"Good point." She'd hoped he'd crawl back into his own bed, but instead he closed the door behind him and approached her. She sighed.

"What? Did my little brother have nightmares and couldn't sleep?" She ruffled his hair playfully.

He frowned. "Nightmares are stupid. Anybody who gets frightened by them is a fool. Anybody who believes in them is an idiot."

Nyx nodded in agreement, reflecting upon her own thoughts of her dream. _Of course it wasn't real. Nobody could know how I see the world. Nobody could invade my mind during my sleep. It wasn't real._ "Just checking."

He glanced at her clothes. "Where are you planning to go?" Skip the "Are you planning to go somewhere?" It was simple; anybody could deduce that she was based on her appearance. But people usually asked, "_Are_ you going somewhere?" Not Near. Then again, Near wasn't really up to par with social standards.

"Simply around. I need a walk to clear my head."

He nodded his head up and down. "I'll see you later, then." In his hand he was shuffling a deck of cards, and he turned and padded back into his room, shutting the door quietly.

In one of the common rooms, she found Mello lounging about on a couch, a bar of chocolate wedged in between pearly white teeth, a leg swung over the back of the furniture. He lowered his newspaper and nodded at Nyx.

On the opposite sofa, Matt was sprawled across, sleek silver MacBook resting on his chest as his fingers danced across the keyboard. Nyx quickly recognized the game as Assassin's Creed 3, a game the redhead had gotten her addicted to. He was probably running Boot Camp to make the game run faster. A cigarette hung from his mouth, a wisp of smoke curling up and disappearing into the ceiling, and he bore his goggles as usual.

And, like always, Nyx could see their names bobbing in the air above a string of numbers. Mihael Keehl and Mail _**(Pronounced "Mile," not "Mail," contrary to popular belief) **_Jeevas.

When Nyx had been instructed to choose a pseudonym to disguise her true identity, it was the moment she realized that she was one of the few people—or maybe the only person—that could see other's true names by just looking at them. Why else would she have to choose a fake name?

As a fan of Greek mythology, she'd chosen Nyx—the goddess of night. She was always a creature of the dark—she'd felt most comfortable at the times of night and was what most people considered "Goth."

"Hey, Nyx," said Mello, "get me another chocolate bar, will you?"

"I'm not your slave, Mello."

"For a friend?" She shook her head.

"Instead of being a lazy ass, get it yourself." She sat on the plush chair and plucked the newspaper out of the blond's hands. "Go on! Get me one too, while you're at it."

He narrowed his eyes. "You hate sweets."

"Yeah, well now I'm in the mood."

"Is it your time of month?"

"No!" She took the pillow from behind Matt's head and chucked it at him. Matt's head landed on the couch—which was soft, but the sudden action and the angle at which he was laying hurt his spine—and he groaned.

"A little warning next time?"

"Sorry," she apologized. Glancing back at Mello she said, "You know as well as I do that I don't act like those other melodramatic girls, and I just have a craving."

Grumbling he stood, chuckling the pillow back at his male friend and stalked out of the room. Matt sighed, the pillow covering half his face and half the keyboard. "Can I not assassinate people in peace?" Without looking at the screen he launched an air assassination on a witness in the street.

"Oh, I apologize, Master Matt," Nyx exaggerated, bowing delicately. "I had not realized we were disturbing your moments of peace."

He rolled his eyes behind his orange lenses and propped his head up on the pillow again, and quickly resumed playing.

Nyx began to read the newspaper, quickly filling herself in on the latest Kira news. Well, what the public considered latest, all of Wammy's kids had already heard of this from Watari.

Subsequent to setting down the newspaper a chocolate bar got chucked in her face, and she barely had time to evade it. Still, a tiny corner scraped her cheek.

She picked it up and examined the wrapper. "You know, I don't really want this anymore…" She threw it back at Mello as he collapsed back onto his seat. He turned to scowl at her for wasting his time but instead his face met a Swiss chocolate bar.

Mello ripped the cellophane off of his and his eye twitched. "You are such a pain sometimes. Why can't you be more like your brother?"

"You know you hate him more than me." Though it wasn't something she appreciated, Nyx knew that Mello and Near were always neck and neck. Though she was tied with them up at top, they never went for her. Well not as much. Near never bothered her as her brother, but Mello found surplus time to beat them verbally and mentally—not necessarily succeeding.

Near was still shuffling his cards as he ambled into the room. "Nyx? Weren't you going out?"

"I changed my mind. I'll go during breakfast. It's a bit too early now."

"Ah." He sat down on the seat across from the table. His dull eyes stared blankly ahead as his nimble, lithe fingers twisted the cards this way and that. He pulled one out and held it away from him. "Seven of clubs."

"Correct." Mello and Matt didn't even bother looking at the cards, but they were right—the card was indeed the seven of clubs. The glossy surface shown in the dim lighting in the room and Nyx picked up her book—Sherlock Holmes. A favorite of hers. She'd read it several times, but it wouldn't hurt to read it once more, would it?

"The fall?" Near's quiet voice rang out in the silent room. Nyx nodded. "That's my favorite part."

She snuck a glimpse upwards, and the first thing her eyes caught was the _Nate River_ floating eerily above her brother's white puff of hair. His number was considerably longer than Mello's—Mihael's—or Matt's—Mail's—number. She assumed that he'd live a longer life. A much longer life. In fact, Mello's and Matt's lifespans were considerably short. They both had less than 10 years left.

Nyx was smart enough to not mention it. Not that they knew of her supernatural ability in the first place.

Standing, she ran a hand through her hair. "Nyx—would you please get me another deck of cards?" Near kept shuffling his own deck between his pale hands.

"Of course."


	3. Chapter 3

_**Disclaimer: I'm unsure whether I already did this or not. I don't own Death Note.**_

"L wishes to work with you, Nyx."

The girl's stun must have reached her face because Watari continued. "You are one of the top here at Wammy's. Due to the fact that you are the oldest of the top three, and you have more experience than Near or Mello,"—she couldn't help but feel smug at that remark—"L has decided that you are the most likely candidate."

She grinned, but quickly wiped that off her face in an effort to keep a serious demeanor. "Are you sure it's a wise choice? Besides, L is already extremely capable of working to find Kira. If I begin to help, I could either get in the way, or Kira could trace back to Wammy's house using me, thus putting everybody in danger."

"No doubt Kira already has an inkling that L has some sort of way to ensure he has an appropriate successor, and Wammy's house isn't unknown. There isn't too much of a danger if you aid L in his quest to capture Kira." He popped open a silver pocket watch attached to an albert chain, checking the time. "L would like your final answer by the end of tomorrow night. Oh, and you're smart enough to deduce that this information should be kept between us three, right? Good." With that Watari was gone, off to aid the mysterious detective that Wammy's was formed for.

A trembling, white-knuckled hand slammed a newspaper down onto the table, and a fuming voice followed. "Damn Kira!" Mello scowled.

Near picked up the newspaper and quickly scanned the article, and then slid it over for Nyx to see. She pushed aside her dinner to read the article. "You know," she says, "Kira's intentions are good. The thing is, whatever power he's been granted, godly or satanic, he's not using it properly. This is a cat-and-mouse chase. He's playing with us."

"The cat always wins," Near spoke softly, holding a few grains of rice between his fingers.

"Don't play with your food, Near." Nyx took up the position of older sister, and he popped the granules into his mouth and simply picked up some more.

"What do you mean, 'the cat always wins'?" asked Matt, gesturing for Nyx to hand him the newspaper with a fingerless-gloved hand. "Not always. Mice are smart. They can evade the cat."

"The cat is clever, sly, cunning, and can always find a way to win," muttered Mello as he skewered a cube of fish with his fork. "Always." Near nodded. Nyx glanced up and met Matt's eyes, sharing a look. Despite Near and Mello's claimed differences, they were extremely similar in personality, even if their approach was different.

Near clambered up the seat into his usual hunched position, which he had adapted after L's. He sipped at his milk then looked up. "And you know what else?"

He and the blond spoke in unison: "I never lose."

_**Author's Note: I apologize for a short chapter! I felt like I needed to get this updated. Will this suffice?**_

_** Also, there's this fabulous violinist named Lindsey Stirling who goes by the username lindseystomp on YouTube. Her work consists of her own compositions (not always classical), popular songs, gaming music and more. She is absolutely fabulous and the first song of hers I heard, I fell in love with. Sometimes her music is that heart-wrenching melody that can bring you to tears. So, please, listen to her work.**_


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